| The Ring Virus | |||||||||
| Native Name: |
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| Director: | Kim Dong-bin | ||||||||
| Producer: | Jonathan Kim | ||||||||
| Starring: | Shin Eun-kyung Jung Jin-young Kim Chang-wan Bae Doona | ||||||||
| Music: | Il Won | ||||||||
| Cinematography: | Hwang Chul-hyun | ||||||||
| Editing: | Kyung Min-ho | ||||||||
| Runtime: | 108 minutes | ||||||||
| Country: | South Korea | ||||||||
| Language: | Korean | ||||||||
The Ring Virus is a 1999 South Korean horror film adapted from the Japanese novel Ring by Koji Suzuki. A joint project between Japan and Korea, this version has Park Eun-Suh as the creator of the cursed videotape. Although the filmmakers claimed that the film was adapted from the novel only, it differs from the novel in some ways that match the 1998 film Ring (also known as Ringu in the US), such as having a female lead character, and several scenes were directly copied, including some of the scenes on the videotape and the film's climax.
At the time of the film's production, South Korea had placed a ban on Japanese cultural imports, which would have prevented Ring from being released in the country. The Ring Virus was commissioned as a remake for the South Korean market. By late 1998 the ban had been lifted,[1] however production for the film had already progressed to near completion, and the film was released on 12 June 1999.
Followed by the death of her friends, journalist Hong Sun-Joo comes across a videotape containing incomprehensible images. Towards the end of the tape, she finds the curse which states that the viewer would die at the same time next week if they do not perform certain tasks. However, the next scene explaining the nature of the task has been erased. Sun-Joo and a doctor named Choi-Yul embark on a journey to break the curse placed upon them. They discover that the videotape was made by the psychic called Park Eun-Suh. Eun-Suh was an illegitimate daughter of a female psychic and was born intersex. She was romantically involved with her half-brother and worked in a night club for a while. There, a man who found out about her secrets was killed as she had the uncanny ability to protect herself. The video tape is the medium Eun-Suh uses to reveal herself to the society. Her first exposure to the media was a painful experience, which caused her to withdraw from the outside world. When it became difficult for her to relate to the society, she retaliated by infiltrating it like a virus. The way of infiltration is one-way only and any attempt to block the process ends in extremely negative consequences.